1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording/regenerating method and an information management system that can record or regenerate information on or from an information recording medium. In particular, this invention is concerned with an information recording/regenerating method and an information management system that can manage a plurality of items of information efficiently.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various information recording media, such as an optical card, a magnetic tape, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optic disk, and an IC card have been employed for recording information.
In recent years, various data bases have been constructed to store enormous information. In the field of health care, for example, an attempt has been made to construct data bases containing the results of screenings undertaken periodically by a municipality. The stored personal information has come to be utilized for various kinds of statistical tabulation or for doctors or public health nurses to give health care advice to residents.
These data bases have been placed in organizations in which health care information is centralized and managed, for example, city halls and health care centers, and recorded in information recording media having relatively large storage capacities, such as magnetic tapes, magnetic disks, optical disks, and magneto-optic disks.
Unless a network permitting online communication over a wide area is completed, the stored information is accessible only in the organizations in which the information is preserved.
With the adoption of an optical card or other information recording medium that has a storage capacity large enough to store the information of an individual and offers excellent portability, the information of individuals is stored in the media and the individuals carry the media. This makes it possible to fully utilize information at multiple organizations.
When a write-once medium such as an optical card is used to record the results of screenings undertaken periodically by a municipality, various methods of management are conceivable in practice. When a write-once medium is concerned, the allocation in recording of previously information recorded cannot be altered. The information of one screening of an individual is recorded additionally as one file.
The information thus stored is the health advice given by used as references in doctors or public health nurse after reviewing the results of past screenings on a time-series basis at a time of physical checkups.
The results of past screenings required for the above purpose are filed by types of screenings and by dates of examinations for each screening. The record positions on a recording medium are separated from one another. A municipality undertakes various periodical screenings every year. For example, a person undergoes six types of periodical screenings including a basic physical checkup, a screening of tuberculosis, a screening of lung cancer, a screening of stomach cancer, a screening of uterine cancer, and a screening of breast cancer. To learn the results of all screenings the person has undergone for the past ten years, the results of the screenings must be read from sixty files recorded on a recording medium.
A period of time is required to carry out a procedure for regenerating each of the sixty information files. Another period of time is required to access a track in which necessary information is recorded. It therefore takes excessive time to regenerate the information.